ON THE UTILIZATION OF RESOURCES - PERSPECTIVES FROM THE US TELECOMMUNICATIONS INDUSTRY

The issue of resource utilization is important in the resource-based s tream of work, since the ability of firms to utilize resources is a ke y indicator of their competitive abilities. This paper specifies,why s ome firms might be better at utilizing resources than others. Thereaft er, it demonstrates how to empirically ascertain differences in resour ce utilization patterns between firms using the U.S. telecommunication s industry as a context. The data envelopment analysis procedure (DEA) , which is a firm-level resource utilization measure, is used. This pr ocedure can be useful for the resource-based approach research agenda since performance is measured in resource terms. DEA is applied to mea sure variations in different dimensions of resource utilization for th e firms making up the local operating sector of the telecommunications industry. The rue of DEA to guide empirical research and address theo retical issues within the resource-based paradigm is illustrated, usin g the resource utilization index for the telecommunications firms as t he measure of strategic performance. (C) 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.